The University of Chicago Library > The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center > Finding Aids > Guide to the William Rutherford P. Ireland Papers circa 1925-1944
© 2011 University of Chicago Library
| Title: | Ireland, William Rutherford P. Papers |
|---|---|
| Dates: | circa 1925-1944 |
| Size: | 2 linear feet (4 boxes) |
| Repository: |
Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center |
| Abstract: | William Rutherford P. Ireland, graduate student in Sociology at the University of Chicago from 1925. He was a student of Chicago School urban sociologists Ernest Burgess and Robert E. Park and prepared extensive material for a never-completed PhD dissertation on Chicago’s “bohemian” population –artists, immigrants, workers, and those living transient or unconventional lifestyles in the city’s rooming houses and settlement houses. This collection includes bohemian life histories and interviews, analyses of urban mobility and rooming house culture, demographic data, and dissertation chapter drafts. |
This collection is open for research.
When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Ireland, William Rutherford P. Papers, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
William Rutherford P. Ireland was born in 1897 in Syracuse, New York. He was admitted to the University of Chicago in 1925, where he pursued a PhD in the Sociology Department. He prepared extensive material for a dissertation on Chicago’s “bohemian” population –artists, immigrants, students, workers, and those living transient or unconventional lifestyles in the city’s rooming houses and settlement houses.
Ireland’s topic was influenced by his advisors, influential sociologists Ernest Burgess and Robert E. Park. Burgess and Park were founding members of the Chicago School, a research approach that applied ethnographic and sociological methods to the contemporary urban environment. Burgess and Park attempted to explain America’s urban demography by mapping the city in concentric zones according to land use and rent.
Ireland’s research reflected the interwar drive of other students and artists to uncover the “authentic” America. They championed intellectual freedom and social permissiveness, while left-wing policymakers and organized labor attempted to eradicate disparities of wealth exacerbated by the Depression.
Ireland gathered considerable data on the demographics and mobility patterns of his subjects. Some of this information, particularly his analysis of rooming house landlords and tenants, became dissertation chapter drafts. Ireland never completed his dissertation, but the interviews and life histories he gathered from “malcontents and discontents” while researching the project provide an interesting perspective on transient and bohemian communities in interwar Chicago.
This collection is organized into two series:
Series 1: Research, contains bohemian interviews, life stories, and demographic data, with Ireland’s related notes. It includes material on Michael Barroy, an aristocratic refugee from the Revolution living in Chicago during the 1920s; and the Dill Pickle Club, a community on the near north side devoted to self-education and artistic production. Untitled documents were numbered by Ireland. Documents are undated unless otherwise listed.
Series 2: Drafts, contains portions of Ireland’s dissertation manuscript. These chapters deal primarily with rooming house culture and patterns of wage earning and mobility amongst landlords and tenants. Drafts are undated unless otherwise listed.
Ernest Burgess. Papers
Ernest Burgess. Papers. Addenda
Robert E. Park. Papers
Series I: Research |
This series is organized into three subseries:
Subseries 1, Research Materials, contains various bohemian interviews, life stories, and demographic data, with Ireland’s related notes. Ireland organized the bulk of his research material into a series of untitled, numbered “documents”; this system has been preserved here. Many of these documents are incomplete. Material is undated unless otherwise listed.
Subseries 2, Michael Barroy, contains the life history of an aristocratic refugee from the Revolution living in Chicago during the 1920s. It includes Ireland’s related notes. Documents are undated unless otherwise listed.
Subseries 3, The Dill Pickle Club, contains members’ accounts of a community devoted to self-education and artistic production. The Dill Pickle Club was located in Tooker Alley off Dearborn Street on Chicago’s near north side. The houses there functioned as an artists’ residence, theatre, speakeasy, and unofficial university. Documents are undated unless otherwise listed.
Subseries 1: Research Materials |
| Box 1 Folder 1 | “Chinese-American rooming houses” |
| Box 1 Folder 2 | “City living,” maps and data |
| Box 1 Folder 3 | Correspondence, circa 1920s-1944 |
| Box 1 Folder 4 | Department of commerce, bulletins, 1944-1946 |
| Box 1 Folder 5 | “Housing women migrants,” data |
| Box 1 Folder 6 | Hunt, Jimmie A., correspondence with “Earl,” 1925 |
| Box 1 Folder 7 | Migration and death rates, maps and data, circa 1910-1920 |
| Box 1 Folder 8 | “Near north side rooming house area” |
| Box 1 Folder 9 | Polish community, biographies and material for questionnaires |
| Box 1 Folder 10 | Rooming houses and hotels, data |
| Box 1 Folder 11 | “The Settlement House Dance Committee” |
| Box 1 Folder 12 | Society for Social Research, bulletins, 1939-1945 |
| Box 1 Folder 13 | “Trials and joys of a keeper of ‘studios for rent’ as distinguished from furnished rooms” |
| Box 1 Folder 14 | “The wandering of a truck driver met at a settlement house dance” |
| Box 1 Folder 15 | Women migrants, data |
| Box 2 Folder 1 | Documents 1-29, list |
| Box 2 Folder 2 | Documents 1-37, life histories, rooming house tenants |
| Box 2 Folder 3 | Document 38, description, San Francisco’s puppet theatre |
| Box 2 Folder 4 | Documents 39-47, description, Diamond Lil restaurant |
| Box 2 Folder 5 | Documents 48-50, interviews, The Neo-arlimusc Club and landlady Miss Craig |
| Box 2 Folder 6-7 | Document 51, life history and poetry, Kenneth Thorpe |
| Box 2 Folder 8-9 | Document 58, correspondence, Charles S. Newcombe, 1938 |
| Box 2 Folder 10 | Document 68, interviews and life histories, immigrants |
| Box 2 Folder 11-13 | Document 75, life histories, rooming house tenants |
| Box 2 Folder 14 | Document 76, life history, Ralph B. |
| Box 2 Folder 15 | Document 77, life history, Mr. N |
| Box 2 Folder 16 | Document 78, anecdote, “naïve radical” |
| Box 2 Folder 17 | Document 79, description, YMCA/YWCA |
| Box 2 Folder 18 | Document 80, description, communist meetings |
| Box 2 Folder 19 | Document 81, life history, waitress at restaurant on Dearborn |
| Box 2 Folder 20 | Document 82 , life history, L.N.S. |
| Box 3 Folder 1 | Document 83, life history, Will |
| Box 3 Folder 2 | Document 84, anecdote, party |
| Box 3 Folder 3 | Document 85, anecdote, Harry Fink’s party |
| Box 3 Folder 4 | Document 86, life history, minister’s divorcée |
| Box 3 Folder 5-6 | Document 92, description, rooming house at Ontario and Michigan |
| Box 3 Folder 7 | Document 103, interviews, rooming house managers |
| Box 3 Folder 8 | Document 104, interviews, rooming house managers |
| Box 3 Folder 9 | Document 105, interview, David Lipman, Apartment House and Hotel Association |
| Box 3 Folder 10 | Document 106, life history, poetess |
| Box 3 Folder 11 | Documents 108-109, description, Goethe Hotel |
| Box 3 Folder 12 | Documents 110-112, interview, Crowe brothers, rooming house brokers |
| Box 3 Folder 13 | Documents 113-114, interview, Don and Lucille |
| Box 3 Folder 14 | Document 115, life history and anecdotes, Elizabeth Davis |
| Box 3 Folder 15 | Documents 116, 141, 146, life history, college student |
| Box 3 Folder 16 | Document 150, interview, Max Lippit, Washington Bookstore |
Subseries 2: Michael Barroy |
| Box 3 Folder 17-19 | Biography |
| Box 3 Folder 20-21 | “A Case of Bohemianism,” circa 1937 |
| Box 4 Folder 1-2 | “A Case of Bohemianism” |
| Box 4 Folder 3 | “Kantor’s Children,” 1929 |
| Box 4 Folder 4 | “Rumours of War” |
Subseries 3: The Dill Pickle Club |
| Box 4 Folder 5 | “The Dill Pickle Club: Salvaging the Gods” |
| Box 4 Folder 6 | “Glimpses of Ben Reitman, M.D.” |
| Box 4 Folder 7 | Reitman, Ben, “Highlights in Dill Pickle History,” 1936 |
| Box 4 Folder 8 | Schoenherr, John, “The Dill Pickle Club” |
| Box 4 Folder 9 | “Tribute to Ben Reitman” |
| Box 4 Folder 10 | Udell, Mr. and Mrs. Howard, and the Radical Bookstore, memoirs |
Series II: Drafts |
This series contains portions of Ireland’s dissertation manuscript. These chapters deal primarily with rooming house culture and patterns of wage earning and mobility amongst landlords and tenants.
| Box 4 Folder 11 | “Migration and Bohemianism in Mid-America,” dissertation outline, undated |
| Box 4 Folder 12 | “Mental Maladies,” undated |
| Box 4 Folder 13 | “Mobility and Personality,” undated |
| Box 4 Folder 14 | “Non-Family Population in Chicago,” undated |
| Box 4 Folder 15 | “Roomers in Houses,” undated |
| Box 4 Folder 16 | “Rooming Houses and Hotels,” undated |